QDR - Background information

The provision of information about learning opportunities and qualifications in Europass is organised to support the effective implementation of the Europass Decision and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) Recommendation.

The 2017 EQF Recommendation invites Member States in accordance with national circumstances to:

Recommendation 6: Make the results of the referencing process publicly available at national and Union levels and, where possible, ensure that information on qualifications and their learning outcomes is accessible and published, using the data fields in accordance with Annex VI.

Annex VI of the 2017 Recommendation contains the main elements for data fields for the publication of information on qualifications with an EQF level.

According to recital 24 of the above Council Recommendation, information on the process of referencing national qualifications frameworks or systems to the EQF and on qualifications with an EQF level should be readily accessible to the public. The use of common data structures and formats would help achieve that objective. It would also facilitate the understanding and use of published information on qualifications.

In addition, the 2018 Europass Decision sets out that the Europass platform shall provide information on qualifications, notably - 

Article 3(2) […] The Europass online platform shall provide available information or links to available information on the following topics: qualifications and qualifications frameworks or systems.

Article 4(4) Europass web-based tools shall refer to the EQF in information on qualifications, descriptions of national education and training systems and other relevant topics, as appropriate and in line with national circumstances.

Information on qualifications is provided through the ‘Search qualifications’ function, allowing Europass users to search for qualifications based on their preferences. It functions as a catalogue of national qualifications with their levels and learning outcomes, which can be filtered by Keyword, Thematic area, EQF level, and Location, with links to national databases. In addition, interesting or relevant qualifications will also be suggested to registered Europass users based on their skills and interests in their Europass profile.

The Europass platform will also include a dedicated section on the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) to include: Information and description of the EQF; comparison of national qualifications frameworks referenced to the EQF; national qualifications frameworks and EQF referencing reports; other documentation (Legal documents, Studies, Documents agreed by the EQF Advisory Group and European Qualifications Framework Series).

The 2022 micro-credential Council Recommendation invites Member States to adopt a European approach to micro-credentials with the objective of enabling individuals to acquire, update and improve the knowledge, skills and competences they need to thrive in an evolving labour market and society[…] and supporting the preparedness of providers of micro-credentials to enhance the quality, transparency, accessibility and flexibility of the learning offering in order to empower individuals to forge personalised learning and career pathways.

Annex I of the 2022 Recommendation contains a list of common European standard mandatory and optional elements to describe micro-credentials recommended as a resource to support implementation.

The 2018 Europass Decision sets out that the Europass platform shall provide information on learning opportunities, notably - 

Article 3(2) […] The Europass online platform shall provide available information or links to available information on the following topics: (a) learning opportunities; […]

Article 7 (1) Each Member State shall be responsible for the implementation of this Decision at national level through the relevant national services and without prejudice to national arrangements in terms of implementation and organisation. 

In that regard Member States shall: […] (d) make information on learning opportunities, qualifications and recognition practices available on the Europass online platform, including through links to relevant national websites; […]

2. The provision of information to the Europass online platform under Article 3(2) shall not create any additional obligations for Member States.

Information on learning opportunities is provided through the ‘Search Courses’ function, allowing Europass users to search for learning opportunities based on their preferences. It functions as a catalogue of national learning opportunities with their levels and learning outcomes, which can be filtered by Keyword, Thematic area, Mode of learning, Teaching language(s), EQF level, and Location, with links to national databases. In addition, interesting or relevant qualifications will also be suggested to registered Europass users based on their skills and interests in their Europass profile.

The 2022 Individual Learning Accounts Council Recommendation aims to support Member States’ initiatives to enable more working-age adults to engage in training in order to increase participation rates and reduce skills gaps. Specifically, it aims to (b) increase individuals’ incentives and motivation to seek training.

The data on Qualifications, Learning Opportunities, and Accreditations comes from the Member States and Europass countries. The data is submitted in datasets to the QDR. The data then feeds into the Europass platform. On Europass, any user can access this data from the “Find courses page” of Europass. The user has access to a search function to navigate between all the courses and qualifications on Europass.

The data can also be used to send course recommendations to Europass users who have a Europass account and a Europass e-portfolio. The skills and information stated in the e-portfolio serve as a basis for these suggestions which are obtained through a recommender system approach.

Finally, the data can be used to feed into the European Digital Credentials for Learning (EDC). The data can populate the data properties of the EDC when they are linked with a qualification or a learning opportunity from the QDR.

When publishing to the QDR, you agree to the following Publishing Agreement:

By submitting the dataset(s), I hereby grant the European Commission a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license to do any act that is covered by copyright or by the database producer’s right.  That includes the right to use, reproduce, create derivative works with, distribute, communicate to the public, make available, extract and re-utilize the dataset(s) and the content. 

I understand that the Commission will then be entitled to publish the datasets as “open data”, thereby allowing their reuse by third parties, which includes commercial and non-commercial purposes.  The Commission may for instance do so by publishing the data under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0.

• Agree
• Disagree

The European Commission's policies on open data focus on generating value for the economy and society through the reuse of public sector information. The Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on open data and the re-use of public sector information should be implemented by Member States as from 16 July 2021. It has replaced the Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive (Directive 2013/37/EU).

In this context of open data, when you wish to publish data on the Qualification Dataset Register (QDR), you need to agree that the datasets will be published publicly and that the European Commission has the right to republish your data.

The European Commission makes the information available for free on Europass and does not sell the data. The publishing agreement states that the data holder grants the European Union with a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, and irrevocable license. This means that the European Commission will then allow persons or legal entities to make use of or to reuse the data, including for commercial purposes, in keeping with the Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information. 

The EU Open Source Software Strategy states that software developed by the European Commission, particularly software intended for external use, should be made available under an open-source licence. The strategy promotes the use of open technologies to foster innovation, reduce vendor lock-in, and enhance collaboration across Member States.

In line with this strategy, the QDR is now officially available as an open-source project on code.europa.eu. With this release, QDR becomes the second application based on the European Learning Model to be made available on code.europa.eu, alongside the European Digital Credentials for Learning infrastructure, which has been available for several years.

By releasing QDR under an open-source licence, the European Commission enables public administrations, developers, stakeholders, and other interested parties across Europe to reuse and adapt the dataset structure for national, regional, local, or sectoral implementations. This approach serves a dual purpose: further promoting the European Learning Model as a standard for sharing learning-related information, and encouraging countries to publish information on qualifications, learning opportunities, and accreditation.

Please note that, while the QDR source code is available on code.europa.eu, it does not currently include comprehensive documentation, and no user support is provided for its implementation.

The qualifications and learning opportunities data published to the QDR is now available on the European data portal as open data. Previously, QDR data could only be accessed through the Course Search function in Europass, which allowed users to find qualifications and learning opportunities across Europe in a single location with a standardised and comparable presentation. The publication of QDR data on the European data portal now enables users to download complete datasets of learning opportunities and qualifications.

The publication of QDR data on the European data portal is made possible under the Publishing Agreement signed by each publishing country which grants the European Commission the right to make the datasets publicly available and reusable, in line with EU open data policies.

Why make qualification and learning opportunities data available as Open Data?

The growing need for cooperation and collaboration at the European level has increased the demand for sharing and accessing information on national qualification and learning opportunity datasets. The provision of a common standard, i.e. the ELM, to describe learning opportunities and qualifications, was the first important step in this direction. Embracing open data principles for publishing learning-related data further enhances transparency, drives innovation, and facilitates collaboration among public sector organisations. By making data freely accessible and reusable, open data supports a more seamless and more comprehensive information exchange between different systems and services. Additionally, it empowers citizens and businesses to leverage valuable public information, fostering economic growth, informed decision-making, and the creation of innovative solutions to societal challenges. The European Legislation on Open Data provides the legal basis for sharing this data openly. 

In the context of qualification and learning opportunity data, this can allow for different types of research, or new tools to be developed on the basis of the available data, such as:

• Comparison - allow users to select two or more qualifications or learning opportunities, and compare them in terms of location of delivery, programme length, qualifications framework level, thematic area, learning outcomes, assessment methods, and other relevant criteria. 

• Intelligence - use big-data analysis to extract trend data from the qualifications, learning opportunities and related skills - mainly for the purpose of education and employment research and policy-making. It allows for analysis of which subjects are being offered, emerging subjects (and those retiring), skills being taught, changes in skill profiles of courses and much more. 

• Guidance - suggest personalised learning pathways to citizens, based on their learning and employment history, or their career aspirations. 

Accessing QDR data on the Open data portal 

You can access all the QDR data here. Datasets, that are updated on a weekly basis, can be downloaded by country or dataset type, in TTL or JSON-LD format. A SPARQL endpoint is also provided, enabling users to query specific parts of the datasets and facilitating integration with other systems or datasets.

Please note that the data on the portal reflects submissions made by publishing countries to the QDR. Coverage may vary by country, and the information included in each dataset may differ depending on the data provider.

Should you have any further questions on the QDR datasets available in the European data portal, please get in touch with: EMPL-ELM-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu.